Keir Starmer to be booted out ‘this yr’ as Angela Rayner favorite to be subsequent Prime Minister
It looks as if Keir Starmer’s days as Prime Minister could be over soon, with a former member of his Cabinet the current favourite to replace him at some stage this year
Former friends turned rivals(Image: AFP via Getty Images)
Keir Starmer is set to be booted out of office as Prime Minister – with Angela Rayner the favourite to take over. The bold prediction is now the bookies favourite, and it comes hours after Starmer’s sort of/not really apology over the Peter Mandelson scandal.
During a hastily arranged press conference yesterday, Starmer told the nation that he was “sorry” following the Lord Peter Mandelson saga as pressure grows on him to resign. The Prime Minster said no-one knew the “depth and darkness” of the relationship between Lord Mandelson and Jeffrey Epstein.
He said Lord Mandelson was asked directly in the UK ambassador to the US interview about the nature of his relationship with Epstein, and it is “clear that the answers he gave were lies”.
Speaking at an event in East Sussex, Starmer said: “The victims of Epstein have lived with trauma that most of us can barely comprehend, and they’ve had to relive it again and again.”
He said they had seen accountability “delayed and too often denied”. “I want to say this. I am sorry, sorry for what was done to you, sorry that so many people with power failed you. Sorry for having believed Mandelson’s lies and appointed him and sorry that even now you’re forced to watch this story unfold in public once again.”
But it seems as if his words have little meaning, with calls for him to go growing from all sides – even his own – with one 2024 intake MP telling the Guardian that “at about 2pm yesterday, if someone had pulled the trigger, we would have moved”.
And now according to Sky Bet, Starmer being replaced as Labour leader and Prime Minister this year is now 3/10 favourite, while Angela Rayner is 11/4 favourite to replace him.
Rayner resigned from her roles as Deputy Prime Minister and Housing Secretary after an independent ethics probe by Sir Laurie Magnus found that she had breached the ministerial code regarding her tax affairs.
A return seems on the cards, but there are others who could take over as Prime Minister if not her, with Wes Streeting second favourite and Ed Miliband (please, no) third favourite.
Looking outside of Labour, Nigel Farage is fourth favourite to become Prime Minister, while Labour’s Shabana Mahmood fifth in the list.
Manchester’s mayor Andy Burnham is next up, while Yvette Cooper, Alistair Carns, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch and Daren Jones round out the top 10.
Who do you want to see leading the UK? Let us know in the comments below.
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